Lightning 100's "Festivus" with The Features and Wild Cub benefiting Forgotten Angels

Wild Cub, The Future

The Features

Two weeks. That's how long The Features had to work up roughly a dozen new tunes before they traveled some 2500 miles from their native Tennessee to Vancouver, Washington to make their new album "The Features" (Serpents and Snakes/BMG). There, the Nashville-based band spent a month crafting the most inventive and assured album of their career.

But when the four members first set up shop in the cabin-esque confines of Ripcord Studio, what they'd come out of there with was anybody's guess."A lot of it seemed pretty spontaneous," says the band's frontman, Matthew Pelham. "Because we didn't solidify anything, really, in those two weeks of practicing. So when we got there, there were a lot of loose ends to tie up."

It wasn't just a bold move, but a dramatic change of pace for a band that’s been praised as one of best live rock combos around. Over the years, they've served up slice after slice of hook-fueled brilliance - with subtle nods to new wave, '60s garage, southern rock, Krautrock and beyond - and perfected them over the course of countless shows and constant retooling in their practice space.

Capturing their thrilling, stage-tested sound was a no-brainer on previous albums. But for "The Features," Pelham and his bandmates - keyboardist Mark Bond, bassist Roger Dabbs and drummer Rollum Haas - were game to shake things up. Just two months away from the release of their hailed 2011 album "Wilderness," they decided that they weren't going to wait another two or three years to start work on the follow-up. They'd make it in the two months they had to spare.

That meant that almost none of the songs pegged for "The Features" had been performed in front of an audience - and several were still works-in-progress when the band arrived in Vancouver. "I don't think we really had any expectations," Pelham says. "We just thought, 'Let's do it differently.’"

From their first night in town - when they loaded into the studio and immediately started firming up the song they were set to track the next day - the band didn't flinch at the task at hand. With no time for second-guessing, they embraced a slew of previously untapped sonics and styles, resulting in their most adventurous set of songs yet.

Lead-off cut "Rotten" is a bold, multi-movement stunner, veering from serene synth-pop to proto-metal riffs, flirting with anthemic "Who's Next" arena-rock before shrinking back to its starting point. "This Disorder" - an instant classic in The Features' esteemed catalog - throbs with a tense funk pulse, jagged guitar swipes and staccato synth lines, as Pelham's tightly wound vocal offers words of caution in the scatterbrained smartphone age. "New Romantic" and "Ain't No Wonder" similarly straddle the line between classic new wave and Bowie-styled soul. But the album is thoroughly modern, too, particularly in the wide-open spaces of shimmering rockers "With Every Beat" and "In Your Arms."

Add it all up, and "The Features" is the sound of a band that's wholly comfortable with where they are - and know exactly where they want to head next.

Wild Cub

Youth is a collection of captured moments...
like moving photographs: late night drives, the limitless feeling of falling in love, the freedom of finding a true friend and co-conspirator in an immense world, the cool ocean meeting your toes on a hot summer's day. A simmering mix of bass, synths, drums, and frontman Keegan DeWitt's low and soft, yet urgent vocals, lead track "Shapeless" sets the evocative and cinematic tone that permeates the album. The taut dreaminess of "Straight No Turns" and "Hidden In The Night" evolve into sensuous, dancefloor-ready electro-pop, while "Jonti" – with its soaring, cathartic chorus "I see it now, it's brighter when the lights are out" – and "Wild Light" – all quirky, staccato organ and lyrical guitar-led charm – are playful art pop sing-alongs. The rich, melancholic soundscape of "Drive" highlights Youth's moody romantic atmosphere. Produced in collaboration with musician (Tallest Trees) and photographer Dabney Morris, and mixed with Ephraim Nagler (You Are Plural, The Velvet Teen), the album combines live takes and programmed sounds, and was recorded digitally before the files were run through a TASCAM 4-track tape recorder, often used for intimate home demos.

Wild Cub is centered on film composer (Cold Weather, Dance Party USA) and singer/songwriter (2009's LP Islands, 2010's Nothing Shows EP and Two Hearts/Reluctance 7") DeWitt, and multi-instrumentalist Jeremy Bullock (Pico vs. Island Trees, Jessie Baylin, Madi Diaz). They toured most of 2011 under DeWitt's name, who'd gotten good press attention from AOL Music's Spinner, FilterMagazine.com, My Old Kentucky Blog, Paste ('Best New Solo Artists of 2010'), Popmatters, and Vogue.com, among others: hitting SXSW, New York Fashion Week (for designer Billy Reid), and the CMJ Music Marathon; and touring with Jeremy Messersmith and on the 4th Daytrotter Barnstormer tour alongside artists including Sondre Lerche and Guards, among other shows. Wild Cub was officially born upon returning home last fall, and Youth was written and recorded over two months in Bullock's house, which was turned into a multi-room studio.

After already catching the eye and ear of their hometown press (Nashville Cream has praised Wild Cub's "intricate melodic pop": "…don't ask how, but the Chris Martin-meets-'Bastards of Young' melody on the first of three new songs hit that elusive sweet spot of melody plus sing-along that every pop-based band should aim for"), the band is now beginning to catch attention from national press including American Songwriter, Paste, and RCRD LBL ("Straight No Turns" song premiere), and also performed at Bonnaroo in June.

The Future

This indie pop quartet of brothers and friends calls Nashville, Tennessee, home – having come together from disparate parts of the country to form a band that creates highly danceable jams that resemble Franz Ferdinand and Spoon’s electro-tinged love child.

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